TSA Strip-Searches Little Boy?

November 22, 2010

The latest airport security WTF?! involves a little boy and his alleged “strip search” at the hands of TSA agents in Salt Lake City, Utah. There’s some confusion as to what actually happened, however, with the public up in arms over the latest “invasion of privacy” while TSA claims the boy’s own dad removed the kid’s shirt. Video after the jump.

The poster of the video explains that “the boy was shy so the TSA couldn’t complete the full pat on the young boy,” after he set off the metal detector. After several tries, the dad was so “enraged,” apparently, that he took the boy’s shirt off “to expedite screening.” The TSA confirms this account on their blog.

Also per the TSA blog:

It should be mentioned that you will not be asked to and you should not remove clothing (other than shoes, coats and jackets) at a TSA checkpoint. If you’re asked to remove your clothing, you should ask for a supervisor or manager.

Meanwhile, the TSA does not apparently like you to videotape their procedures, even if there’s nothing else to do while you wait in line as a kid is strip searched. The guy who took the video had this to share about his experience:

After I finished videotaping the incident I went through the check point myself. I collected my things and went over to talk to the father and son. Before I could get to them a man in a black suit who had been talking with the other TSA officials approached me. He asked to speak to me and I obliged, wondering what was to come. He then proceeded to interrogate me about why I was videotaping the “procedures of the TSA.” I told him that I had never seen such practices before on a young child and decided to record it. The man being frustrated at this point demanded to know my plans with the video, of which I didn’t respond. Repeatedly he asked me to delete the video, hoping his mere presence could intimidate me to obey, but I refused. By this point it became obvious that he felt TSA had done something wrong and that I caught it on tape. After the interview, I left for my gate.

My gate was a long way off, but about 15 minutes after arriving 2 TSA agents came and sat 15 feet or so away from me. I stood up and moved so that they were in front of me and then took a picture. A 3rd and then a 4th agent came and sat down with the others. They would occasionally glance at me and talk on their walkie-talkies. I don’t know why they were there or if it was a huge coincidence but they stayed for 30-45 minutes and left just before I boarded the plan. Interesting to say the least, intimidating? Maybe a little…